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Farewell, Cortana

gizmodo.com

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Re: Farewell, Cortana

#111

Post by lordlimecat »

goatinaboat wrote: post #87
himinlomax wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be fair here. Apart from AD and Exchange, the only Windows-only server programs you may need to install are likely to be legacy domain specific, professional kind of stuff. I've seen tax-filing stuff, finance regulation compliance, medical or judicial "solutions" that would only run (poorly) on Windows, usually with mind-boggling requirements (run as domain admin! Server 2003 only!) and they simply won't run wi…

usually, if you need Windows server, you're going to need the GUI. This absolutely is not true and is a bizarre assertion to start with “Let’s be fair here”.

The number of roles with no or effectively no Powershell cmdlets is staggering, and remote MMC require punching a dozen holes in the firewall when it even works. Even then there are many roles like iis and adfs that are still effectively broken with no gui.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#112

Post by charles_f »

hakfoo wrote: post #108
charles_f wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually used Cortana on my Android phone. (Disclaimer - I work for MSFT). The main reason why I don't use Google assistant instead is the total unease with having Google listen to me 24/7. Cortana's not too bad for the simple stuff like getting the outlook of the day or setting up geofenced reminders (remind me to unload the washing machine when I come back home). Anything more complex absolutely fails 100% of the…

For something hosted on a phone, I think they could improve the feel of privacy just by discarding the wake-word concept. This also allows them to cut out the passive listening hardware (saving money) or software load (saving battery life and CPU overhead) If you have the phone in your hands anyway, it's not that outlandish to have a button you press to engage Siri/Cortana/etc. This also avoids annoying/embarrassing…

Right, but when you're in the car through or cooking, or bathing your kid, activating it via voice is a real saver.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#113

Post by fortran77 »

neilalexander wrote: post #104
fortran77 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We run hundreds of GUI-less Windows Servers at our company. Works really well. On Azure.

Yep, likewise. I think the only thing that required the Desktop Experience off the top of my head was WSUS, but we have all sorts of other roles running on Server Core without any issues at all.

And it's very easy to administer all of them at once. With PowerShell scripts. There's nothing like it on other platforms.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#114

Post by manicdee »

goatinaboat wrote: post #87
himinlomax wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be fair here. Apart from AD and Exchange, the only Windows-only server programs you may need to install are likely to be legacy domain specific, professional kind of stuff. I've seen tax-filing stuff, finance regulation compliance, medical or judicial "solutions" that would only run (poorly) on Windows, usually with mind-boggling requirements (run as domain admin! Server 2003 only!) and they simply won't run wi…

usually, if you need Windows server, you're going to need the GUI. This absolutely is not true and is a bizarre assertion to start with “Let’s be fair here”.

It’s a perfectly fair assertion given the abundance of commercial software in active use which is a “server” written into the back end of a desktop application. They are not written as stand alone Services.

Remember this is the real world we live in, where once a developer learns how to build a Windows application in Visual Studio, everything becomes a Visual Studio app based on the same template. Consider yourself lucky when the developer uses a newer version of Visual a Studio and dotNet than the one they started with a decade ago.

In the perfect world, yes we would be paying developers high salaries and allowing lots of “down time” for retraining into the current version of dotNet, and allowing plenty of time to upgrade legacy applications to current versions of Windows.

In the real world we still have that Windows 2000 server sitting around with a printed sign taped to the keyboard saying, “DO NOT UPDATE: PLEASE SEE JOEL BEFORE TOUCHING” only nobody remembers who Joel is and he left the company before Confluence arrived. All we know is that we can’t even install Remote Desktop Services because when Joel tried that it broke the application software. That sign appeared on the machine a week after that incident because that’s how long it took Joel to repair the server to the point that the application would work again.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#115

Post by srg0 »

Cortana was doomed the moment Microsoft gave up on Windows Phone. It could never become as integrated with the mobile os as the competing assistants. Even if Cortana was better, it wasn't always listening. And on a desktop the assistants are still not sufficiently versatile at home, and not compatible with the open office environments at work.

Also Cortana was always good at languages it suported, but it couldn't provide good localized content for most of the world.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#116

Post by kabdib »

ToFab123 wrote: post #65
kabdib wrote: post #42

The big howler for me was Cortana running as part of Windows Server 2016, by default. Look: I'm not really happy running Windows Server to begin with [HN crowd: a decision that was not mine, by the way], so why do you have to have this stupid thing downloading and running all kinds of random executables that I have no idea what they do in my bloody server farm ? And yup, I have logs off all those things, and pager tr…

>The big howler for me was Cortana running as part of Windows Server 2016, by default. Cortana is not running as part of Windows Server 2016 by default . The default install option is no GUI and that option does not install Cortana. You will explicit have to choose that you want to install the "Desktop experience" in order to get Cortana. If you select to add an optional feature named "Desktop experience" it is fair…

The "default" install is headless, yup. Yet, if you want something usable in many environments, you'll need the GUI. We use third party (and Microsoft) tools that do pixels (and PowerShell still doesn't do everything).

So if you were given the choices:

1. Headless (lots of stuff doesn't work, especially third-party utilities)

2. GUI

3. GUI without Cortana and other crazy

... which option would you pick?

There is no #3, by the way.

> it is fair enough that Cortana is there since she is (or now was) a part of Microsoft Desktop experience

I don't care how you spin this, it's very bad practice for a "server OS" to download and run random code. Making Windows Server secure is hard enough without this nonsense. "Oh, Cortana comes for free with the Desktop Experience" is just begging the question, it doesn't make the underlying bad practices of that Windows component somehow okay.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#117

Post by LastZactionHero »

ineedasername wrote: post #23
kgwxd wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone use any voice assistant anywhere? Other than people trying it out for the first time, I've literally never seen it in the wild.

I use GA all of the time. I usually have bluetooth headphones around my neck and use them constantly to set timers for reminders, directions in the car, and most usefully whenever I want a quick answer to something. It's really nice to be occupied cooking dinner still be able to get a quick answer to "what's backscatter radiation" or some other random thing when listening to an audio book, or thinking about, well, an…

It's really nice to be occupied cooking dinner still be able to get a quick answer to "what's backscatter radiation"

What the heck are you cooking?!

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#118

Post by ineedasername »

LastZactionHero wrote: post #117
ineedasername wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use GA all of the time. I usually have bluetooth headphones around my neck and use them constantly to set timers for reminders, directions in the car, and most usefully whenever I want a quick answer to something. It's really nice to be occupied cooking dinner still be able to get a quick answer to "what's backscatter radiation" or some other random thing when listening to an audio book, or thinking about, well, an…

It's really nice to be occupied cooking dinner still be able to get a quick answer to "what's backscatter radiation" What the heck are you cooking?!

homemade nuka cola!

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#119

Post by Splognosticus »

funnybeam wrote: post #54
Splognosticus wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Siri to set alarms and timers since that's far and away more convenient than opening the app and switching to the right tab and futzing with the time dial. If I've got my phone in my pocket and my hands full it's helpful to be able to tell Siri to turn the flashlight on. Aside from that I don't think I've used it for much. I get the weather from the radio already, and don't care to search the web with a voice a…

Why would you want to turn the flashlight on when the phone is in your pocket?

I wear shirts with breast pockets and the part with the light extends past the top of them.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#120

Post by jotm »

jotm wrote: post #68
Nerdfest wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to remember that even when Cortana is shut off, it was found to be listening and sending telemetry back to Microsoft. Based on their past behaviour, I'd guess that even is it is "removed", those elements will remain.

Well, speech recognition executables want access tnrough the firewall regularly, regardless of Cortana. So yeah, something is being sent.

Oh, I'm sorry for pointing out the fact that speech recognition wants outbound access through the firewall even on Cortana-less LTSC. That must be so hurtful! Please forgive me, I'm on your side, I don't even vaccinate!
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